Who'd a Thunk It?

Life takes strange turns. I would never, in my wildest imaginings, have predicted that I would be traveling to China with anticipation and excitement.

Hi, I'm Peter Gustafson the Principal of Clearwater Middle School in Waconia, Minnesota. Last summer our school district welcomed a new Superintendent, Dr. Nancy Rajanen. She has a strong interest in international relations and has traveled extensively as an educational consultant.

Coincident with that, our community was surveyed to identify its areas of interest for future educational programing. Loud and clear came the response: foreign language and culture. The stars were aligning.

Dr. Rajanen encouraged us Principals to note that an educator's trip to China was being sponsored and paid for by the College Board and Hanban University. She thought we should apply.

Three of the five Principals of District 110 applied thinking that we might have one of our applications approved. Imagine our surprise when we learned that all three of us were invited to participate.

Therefore, in June of 2009, Principal Mark Fredericksen of Waconia High School and Principal Khuzana DeVaan of Southview Elementary School and I, together with 397 other American school administrators will be winging our way to the other side of the world for a six day educators' conference in Beijing.

In order to get the most out of our trip, we are inviting you to take the trip with us via technology. A good start has been made on a web site where we will be posting daily updates including pictures as well as our impressions. This blog will continue to be posted while we are on the trip and we will be encouraging those who know us to follow our travels using the SPOT technology of GoogleEarth.

We hope to establish a strong and informative relationship with schools in China. We anticipate sharing our adventure with all District 110 students and we hope to significantly increase their awareness of and interest in China as a human culture.

Thanks for your interest. We invite you to stay tuned for further information.